Assignment 04: The Last Utopia
In chapter one of Samuel Moyn work, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, he mentions how in the last decades is has been trying to understand the origin of the human rights and the difference between the rights of man” and “human rights.”
Over the years there have been attempts to explain the true origin of human rights. Samuel Moyn mentions how important it is to establish a connection between rights and the states. We must remember that when we talk about “rights” we emphasize this a right to act, participate or demand something that we consider is part of us as human beings.
Before “human right” Samuel Moyn mentions in his text ”The last Utopia” how “natural rights” were considered the rights of nature derived most often from God. One of the philosophers considered that people have the natural right to life, liberty, and property.
According to Moyn, human rights over the years have been considered as “The Heritage of Humanity “assuming that all human beings are part of the same group. But as we have been reviewing in the last readings this has not happened and human rights have been considered only for certain people.
In the 1960s, human rights focused mainly on civil and political rights. This is why inequality exists because not everyone has the same rights but the same obligations as citizens of a nation.
According to Moyn, the “rights of man” were about a whole people incorporating itself in a state, not a few foreign people criticizing another state for its wrongdoings (pg 26). He also mention that human right came
In the nineteenth century “the right of man” was trying to secure the rights of a citizen but were not considered some people as women or slaves. For example, the Italian Giuseppe Mazzini maintained that “the right of man” was created to protect just some individuals excluding others. He also mentioned that an individual should be free and have equality.
After reading this chapter of Samuel Moyn I understand that the “rights of man” were focus in protecting an individual’s property more than give them rights on specific terms. On the contrary “human rights” are focus in giving rights to all people letting them to participate in different roles inside a nation. These “human rights” are supposed to protect all men and also women and be able to fight for their rights and have a voice as anyone else. (Pg. 19)
